World Valve Market to Exceed $44 Billion by 2007

The world market for industrial valves will grow from $38 billion in 2003 to more than $44 billion in 2007. This new forecast has just been incorporated into the online Valves: World Markets report published by the McIlvaine Company.

In terms of valve types, the automatic regulatory and control valve segment will be the largest with over a 20 percent market share. Ball valves will garner almost the same share followed in order by gates and globe valves, butterfly valves and industrial plug valves. A variety of miscellaneous valve types are aggregated in a sixth category which will account for $7.6 billion in sales in 2007.

Industry market shares have also been determined for each country and for each valve type and aggregated to determine world shares. The oil and gas industry is now and will continue to be the largest purchaser. Refineries are the second segment, followed by power and then the chemical industry. Municipal wastewater treatment plants comprise the fifth largest segment, followed by pulp and paper and municipal water supply. There are several other industries that will each purchase more than $1 billion worth of valves in 2007. They are food, iron and steel and pharmaceuticals. The next tier of industries includes metals, mining and semiconductor.

The power industry has been one of the most volatile markets. There was a rush of orders for valves for combined cycle gas turbine plants in 2000 and 2001. In 2002 orders plummeted. However, a rebound is starting again thanks to activity in coal-fired generation. Coal-fired plants spend three times as much for valves as do gas-fired plants of the same electrical output. As a result, the long-term valve potential is larger now that coal is firmly back as the fuel of choice.

While China will be the fastest growing purchaser of valves, it will have only attained fourth place by 2007. The U.S. will remain on top followed by Japan and Germany. The UK will occupy fifth place followed by France, South Korea, Italy, Taiwan and Canada.

More than five thousand manufacturers around the world make valves. Nearly one thousand of these companies are specifically identified in the report. Large companies do not dominate the market. The top five companies, Tyco, Flowserve, Emerson, Dresser and Kitz, on a combined basis, only have a 12 percent market share. The second set of five companies, ABB, SPX, Circor, Metso and KSB only has a combined 4 percent market share. Companies in the eleventh through fifteenth slots have a combined market share of just 3 percent. So the top fifteen companies only control 19 percent of the market.

There is a wide variation in size, materials and function among the many thousands of applications. As a result there are valve manufacturers who just focus on sanitary applications such as found in the food and pharmaceutical applications. There are others who just focus on high temperatures and pressures such as found in the power industry. Many companies specialize in just one valve type or even more narrowly in one sub segment of a valve type. Because of the diversity of needs it is likely that this specialization will continue. In turn, there will continue to be large numbers of companies participating in the market. For more information click on Valves: World Markets www.mcilvainecompany.com/water.html#N028.